Committee of the Peoples Charter (CPC) is a non-partisan political, economic, social and democratic accountability movement founded in 2011 in pursuit of the realization of the societal objectives enunciated by the Zimbabwe People’s Charter adopted at the Peoples Convention on 9 February 2008 in Harare, Zimbabwe.

Saturday, 17 November 2012

CPC response to the 2013 National Budget presented by Finance Minister Tendai Biti

16 November 2012

The
Committee of the Peoples Charter (CPC), having read the 2013 budget
presentation, notes that it is a budget that is intended at continuity in
relation to the inclusive government’s work programme at least six months prior
to elections being held in March next year.

It is this
intended continuity with its attendant business as usual approach that points
to the fact that the inclusive government might not be taking elections
scheduled for 2013 as seriously as would be expected. This is with regards to
both the inadequate budgetary allocation for elections and the referendum, as
well as in the assumption that the inclusive government’s work programme will
be undertaken by the next government of Zimbabwe.

It is
therefore the CPC’s initial observation that the inclusive government, through
its budget is not taking the nationally important issue of elections as
seriously as is necessary. This is even more tacit where consideration is given
to the fact that the inclusive government is a compromise arrangement and to seek
a repeat of the same through inadequate resourcing of elections is unfortunate.

The CPC
notes that in the same framework of seeking continuity to its policy
ambiguities, the inclusive government has not allocated any resources for a
wholesale review of its performance either for each line ministry or as
Cabinet. Because of this, there is the claim that for example, the Distressed
Industrial and Marginalized area Fund (DIMAF) was not exhausted in the current
financial year (2012), yet it was a fund that was established on the basis of
urgency.

It therefore becomes disheartening to assess
that the recurrence of the same urgent challenges facing the people of Zimbabwe
in all of the last four national budget presentations by the Minister of
Finance is indicative of limited or poor performance by the ministers in the
inclusive government.

In
relation to social welfare or what the budget has termed ‘Social Services and
Social Safety Nets,’ there is no new approach to the challenges faced therein.
The template that the government seeks to use is that which has continued to
bedevil the social services, particularly health and education since the first
full budget of the inclusive government.

It would
have been preferable had health and education at primary level be made free at
all government institutions with the intention of ensuring access for all young
children and primary school pupils. This would be a mitigatory measure against
commercialization of these services where only the few get the best of them and
our political leaders seek health treatment as well as send their children to
expensive schools. And where international donors have been assisting in
funding our health delivery system, it would be preferable that the government
negotiate from that premise.

The
reference that the budget makes to youth is however of significance in that
indeed youth unemployment is a 'time-bomb' in Zimbabwe. In our view the reasons
for this are not because, contrary to the budgets assertion of a fear of a
youth uprising similar to the 'Arab spring'. it is more because the inclusive
government has failed to address youth unemployment holistically and has
unfortunately sought to purchase support of young Zimbabweans through unclear
youth funds that have eventually mainly benefited those with proximity to
political power. Where the 2013 budget emphasizes 'vocational training' for
youths it accords them no particular role in the contemporary economy,
particularly via public work programmes such as the much vaunted
Plumtree-Mutare highway or even proposed rehabilitation of hospitals and other
state institutions.

In
conclusion, the CPC, being aware that budgets are not singular panaceas for
societal development, it is the progress that they make and provide for that
leads towards better and democratic distribution of the national cake. The 2013
budget however is not a major departure from what has been obtaining since 2009
where the template that informs it remains to the greater extent over reliant
on resources and knowledge support from the IMF and the World Bank,
institutions that were at the lead of implementing economic structural
adjustment programmes in the 90s.

It is
unfortunate that in contemporary times, the inclusive government continues to
inadequately address the contextual economic problems that Zimbabwe faces
through similarly arrived at templates.